As a former "Greek 101 drop out" I think I can add a bit to this discussion.
I actually intended to continue with my formal Greek training but the
circumstances of life sort of got in the way. I took Greek 101 at Texas Tech
University under Dr. Christiansen. I left the university after my first
year, to work and earn some money so I could go back, but didn't go back
because I got a call from a local church to preach full time for them. (I
was at that time a member of a church that does not have ordained
ministers.)
Greek was the first foreign language I had ever attempted. Dr. Christiansen
did the same thing that Carl does and told us that we were going to have to
work hard to accomplish success in his course. He gave us some practical
suggestions about how to do that. But most of all he instilled in us a love
of Greek with his attitude. You could tell, even as he was teaching
elementary grammar, that he loved the language. He inspired me to put my all
into learning it. I don't know how many "drop outs" there were from his
class, but I'm sure that there were probably a few who were inspired to
continue beyond Greek 101 because of his attitude. I personally know of at
least one who was.
I continued my Greek studies, on my own, after I went into the ministry full
time. I have achieved, through continued diligence, the ability to read the
Greek New Testament fairly well (with few or no trips to a lexicon). I think
teachers need to tell their students that being successful at Greek will
require a lot of hard work. At the same time, they should demonstrate to
their beginning students how much they love the language. It will go a long
way to reducing the number of drop-outs.
Just my humble opinion,
Lynn Trapp
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 10:42 AM
> To: Biblical Greek
> Cc: Biblical Greek
> Subject: [b-greek] Re: Greek 101 drop outs - Follow up
>
>
> At 4:07 PM +0000 11/21/00, Mark Wilson wrote:
> >Carl wrote:
> >
> >----
> >I tell students in the opening class that they should drop
> immediately
> >unless they are prepared to work industriously and
> consistently for the real
> >rewards which will come only when they have mastered an awful lot of
> >tedious rote learning and achieved a good grip on the Greek
> verb as well as
> >a powerful lot of vocabulary.
> >----
> >
> >What I think this statement might do, as much unconsciously
> as consciously,
> >is to put students in a stressed out pre-disposition toward
> learning Greek.
> >(Remember, there may be many sitting in your class that will
> just find it
> >much easier to learn than us B-Greekers did. Maybe Greek
> will just come
> >natural to them... who knows.)
>
> No; the fact of the matter is that the warning is--more often than
> not--ignored; many a student assumes that he/she can do the
> same thing with
> Beginning Greek as with another language course or with many of the
> coureses he/she takes: attend classes haphazardly, let things
> drift for two
> or three days and then return to preparing lessons, cram for
> tests and get
> by with a passing grade. By about the third test, if it takes
> that long,
> this kind of student is hopelessly lost. You realize, of course, I'm
> talking about teaching in a secular university and that most of these
> students want to read Homer or Plato, not NT, but the fact is
> that students
> who DO want to read NT often approach this class the same
> way, and when
> they do, they waste their own time as well as mine and that
> of their more
> earnest classmates.
>
> >Consider this: Suppose you used the opposite approach.
> Suppose you told your
> >students that learning Greek is quite easy and extremely
> rewarding. In fact,
> >by the end of this first year, you will be able to translate
> many passages
> >in the Bible. And further, you will not believe how quickly
> you will begin
> >picking up more advanced Greek, because it all builds on
> previously learned
> >material.
>
> I do tell them that it is extremely rewarding and that is why
> the hard work
> is worth the effort; but I'm not going to lie to them and
> tell them that
> it's easy. I do tell them that one of the things they're
> going to have to
> learn, perhaps for the first time, is how English works; I
> also tell them
> that if they take things like phonology seriously they will
> find that much
> of the rote learning becomes not simply rote but the application of
> intelligent principles--and that reduces the drudgery, but it doesn't
> deliver anyone from having to spend at least an hour if not
> two or three
> OUTSIDE of class for every hour spent IN class. My experience is that
> students who are adequately motivated will be willing to put
> in the time
> and effort; those I want to deter are the ones who imagine
> that they can
> learn Greek with minimal time and effort expended.
>
> >And then, of course, you go into my previous posting, and
> begin the sales
> >job, etc. :o )
> >
> >But what happens is this relaxes the students. Their entire
> disposition
> >begins with a radically different paradigm.
> >
> >And don't feel like they have to learn a lot of material by
> some end point.
> >(That may be imposed on you by your University or Seminary,
> but only you
> >know how tough it was for you when your Greek teacher taught
> you. Why put
> >your students through THAT.)
>
> There's fundamental grammar and basic vocabulary that must be
> known before
> going on to another level, whether that be reading of Homer,
> reading of
> Attic prose and poetry, or reading New Testament. At the very
> least, there
> has to be a basic mastery of the standard Greek verb and three or four
> dozen major irregular verbs. If students don't have that much
> under their
> belts, they can't swim in a second-level course, no matter
> what literature
> is being read.
>
> >They have the rest of their lives to learn it. Simply tell
> them this: "We
> >all learn at different rates, so just how fast you progress
> and advance will
> >relate to how much time you invest. And like any language,
> if you do not
> >"keep it up" you begin to forget and eventually lose what
> you had learned.
> >So, never stop learning Greek, if only a little a day (or week). But
> >remember folks: learning Greek is only a means to an end:
> knowing Him."
> >
> >And once you teach them just a few basic declensions and
> conjugations, and
> >they then "translate" John 1:1, just watch their eyes!
> (Imagine what happens
> >to their interests and motivations when they are translating
> ALREADY!)
> >
> >After they do this, here is what I would say: "Well,
> essentially, you have
> >learned Greek. That's all there is to it. For the rest of
> your life you will
> >begin learning more vocabulary words and grammatical
> principles which will
> >allow you to translate more and more of the Bible...
> >
> >So, congratulations... you are well on your way to
> understanding the BIBLE.
> >(Notice I did not use the word "Greek" here. Pretty sneaky, eh?)"
>
> I think that's the point at which students know "just enough
> Greek to be
> dangerous."
>
> >Finally, most of us on this list, I would imagine, have a
> very strong desire
> >to learn Greek, so very little is going to detour us. But
> imagine how many
> >dropped out because of their "fear." (A fear that was unfounded.)
>
> I've never met any students who were deterred out of fear; I
> have met a
> very few who are such slow learners that their great efforts
> (and I HAVE
> spent a lot of time trying to help such students) just simply
> never really
> pay off. Most of the students I've met who were deterred were
> deterred by
> the realization that they are going to have to work at it to get it.
>
> >BTW, I wonder how many drop outs had a natural ability to
> retain Greek
> >vocabulary, declensions, conjugations, grammar, etc... only
> to conclude
> >after Greek 101, "Well my teacher said it is going to get
> really hard, so I
> >better drop out now before I get in too deep."
> >
> >Today's motto: Teachers: be very upbeat, creative, and "sneaky" :o )
>
> Sorry, I don't think that "Just a spoonful of sugar makes
> Greek go down."
> On the other hand, I've had plenty of students who have found
> the drops of
> honey that they are distilling from the course all along are
> enough to keep
> them busy as bees and making daily progress in the hive.
>
> --
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics/Washington University
> One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
> Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
> cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
> cwconrad@ioa.com
> http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
>
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